We continued walking in silence until we reached a pair of silver doors, each one stretching from the floor to the ceiling. At one side, a terminal stuck out, and Twelfth punched in a code. The doors slid open with a long creaking sound.

The base was bland steel on all sides, without decoration or elaboration. Twelfth entered freely, and while people gawked at us as she took me towards the cells, no one tried to stop her.

Once she climbed down the fourth staircase so far, she was intercepted by Marie.

“We agreed to kill her, Hector.” Marie huffed, “You know what she did.”

Twelfth shrugged, “I caught her alive. Why show her mercy she doesn’t deserve? We might as well put her to use.”

“Why not?” Marie said, “If she’s alive, the Vermin might manage to save her. We shouldn’t let a monster escape.”

“Really?” I said, “Quick, Hector, stab her!”

Twelfth smacked me with her spear, hard.

“No backtalk.” She said, then turned back to Marie, “She’s Eris’ best weapon. She’ll make good materials for new angels.”

“You’re both monsters.” I spat, “Shredding souls and enslaving the abominations you make from them.”

Twelfth sighed, “Quit with the speeches. I’m not going to join your side, or the vermin.”

“It’s not too late, Marie.” I said, “You don’t have to put holiness above goodness.”

“Can I stab her?” Marie asked.

“Nope.” Twelfth said, “If it’s any consolation, she’s been bumped to the top of the queue. She’ll be dead in two hours.”

“Is this really necessary?” I asked, “Can’t you just let me go?”

“You chose the wrong side, Ashlyn.” Marie said, “Don’t you see that now?”

I looked Marie in the eyes. “You chose the wrong side, even now. I regret nothing. Change sides before you cross another line you can’t reverse.”

Marie scoffed, “Fine. Be like that. You’ll be lucky to die quickly.”

“She won’t!” Twelfth said, “It’ll be exactly as agonizing as she deserves!”

“And you both still think I’m the evil one.” I said, and smirked at her.

Marie snarled, and punched me in the jaw.

I spat out a mouthful of blood, and said, “Violence in the face of truth? Maybe you belong here after all.”

Twelfth sighed, “As fascinating as this debate is, I’m separating you before she manages to get herself killed. Don’t worry, she’ll get everything she deserves.”

With that, she dragged me off. Marie didn’t follow.

Nobody else stood in our path and eventually she hurled me into an isolated cell.

She grinned at me as she left, “Just sit there and wait for the labs to take you. It won’t be long. Don’t worry, nobody can hear you scream.”

I carefully corrupted the chain of the handcuffs, using [Infusion of Self], until they would split apart with a single yank. It was surprisingly easy. I’d expected that to fail, and to have to smash them with [Unpredictable Detonation], which would’ve been much harder to make work.

I was bad at patience. It took at least fifteen minutes for them to send someone in, and it was a group of five suits of white armor. They might have been people, but there were no gaps or indicators of a body beneath the metal. Even their eye holes were covered in tinted glass. Each carried a metal staff.

One grabbed me, and lifted me in a fireman’s carry. He lugged me around while the other four stood guard, each standing close enough to whack me with their stick.

I tried to confirm whether they were people. If they were, they were horrifically stoic. Both my worst jokes and my most absurd insults failed to draw any reaction as they took me through the winding halls of the prison.

Eventually, they reached a room with an operating table to strap me to, and a half-dozen human-sized tubes, still open. Two people stood inside the room, or at least that’s what my eyes told me.

One was a patchwork quilt of a man, no part quite matching any other. He was very big, almost eight feet tall, and a little over two feet from one shoulder to the other. He moved with a smoothness that belied his lopsided form, confidently moving from one control panel to another, sliding switches and adjusting dials.

The other one frowned as I entered, leaning upon his staff like a cane. He looked shockingly young, perhaps fourteen. His skin was the unearthly white of porcelain, and his teeth were sharp and pointed. Something about his movements looked horrifyingly alive.

My powers told me there was a third person in the room. The staff the boy was leaning against was a person in its own right. It was absurdly ornate, a green piece of wood with hundreds of unique silver snakes sculpted across its surface.

“This is the one you want me to restore?” The boy asked, “Why?”

“Two reasons,” The patchwork man answered, “One, she’s Eris’ second. She’s got to be powerful. The second is, of course, that we can kill two birds with one stone. Mixing an interrogation and an execution works better when death is a mercy.”

The boy sighed, “You always manage to reach new heights of depravity, don’t you, Victor? I thought it was bad enough when you stole your son’s body and scraped his soul for parts.”

“I could hurl you into the vat, if you’re eager to die.” Victor threatened.

“We both know your pretty form didn’t change your gifts, Victor.” The boy said, “Besides, they’ve tried that already. The vat exploded. Do you really want to break another one?”

Victor sighed.

“Can you believe the disrespect I have to put up with?” He complained at me, “It used to be that you could get compliant help, rather than rebellious brats out to pick a fight.”

I laughed at him, “If I have to die, at least I get to see a comedy routine first.”

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The boy laughed as well, “Looks like she immediately pegged you as a joke.”

Victor scowled, “I despise working with you, but we need to. Can’t you just get over it?”

The boy scowled, “Certainly. Just say the word, and my bindings will force me to forget every reason I hate you. Of course, I might be able to misinterpret that. Everyone who’s tried to abuse the bindings died, excluding William. Do you want to take the risk?”

I grinned at him, “I think I like you.”

“Please.” The boy said, “I’m not susceptible to flattery. I think it’s clear; I don’t have the luxury of refusing my orders.”

“Is it to do with the title, or do you have standing orders from William?” I asked.

“Both.” He said, “I have orders to do the horrible things to any of Eris’ people we get our hands on, as per the procedures written in the directions. But Victor has commanding authority over me because of his title, “Head Researcher of Heaven”. It’d be too much trouble to constantly key in and out specific people, and that might lead to the bindings fraying.”

Victor said, “Stop blathering, and get her strapped down.”

I yanked, and the handcuffs split. In the same moment, I cast [Blood of the Sacrificed]. As soon as it finished, I had [Beast in the Blood] grab the armor carrying me under. Then, while everyone was still off balance, I cast [Unpredictable Detonation] on one of the suits of armor. The wave of force hit everyone in the room, except me. The boy didn’t even stagger, but everyone else was hurled into a wall. I rose to my feet and lunged for Victor, and hoped the boy wouldn’t be compelled to attack me.

I managed to reach Victor, and used [Merchant of Bonds and Titles] to swap “High General of Hell” for “Head Researcher of Heaven.”

He recovered enough to smash his skull into my knee. I stumbled backwards, but said, “I revoke every command I have given.”

The boy laughed, and lunged for Victor and me. Before I could even try to dodge, he’d hurled Victor into one of the suits of armor. It shattered into a pile of scrap.

I finished off the remaining suits of armor before they got to their feet, if that was even a thing they could do. While I was doing that, the boy was mercilessly thrashing Victor. He moved horrifically quickly, and was batting Victor around the room with calculated precision.

“Y’know, I didn’t think I’d ever get the chance to do this.” He said to me, “I’ve had to deal with nasty folks before, but this guy’s the worst.”

“I can imagine.” I said, “Think I can do anything about those bindings?”

“Nah.” He said, “I’m a little bit too tangible for that to work. Don’t fret, once William dies, I’ll be free as a bird.”

“You think we can?” I asked.

“Nah.” He said, “I don’t know you from Eve. But I’ll be astonished if he lasts the month, either way. He’s good at bindings, but he’s pushing himself too far. Mine are getting weaker every day. At this rate, in three months, I’ll be able to shatter them. After that, if I don’t manage to kill him, the Mettatron will break theirs, and - well, no way he can handle that. They might rip apart this world first.”

He strapped the barely-conscious Victor into the restraints, and grinned. Then he rotated the operation bed into a standing position.

“You might want to run.” He grinned, “I’m not your enemy, and I appreciate the gesture, but he didn’t set up the binding arrays yet. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt by a wild angel. But first, can you give me a few commands?”

“Sure.” I said.

“Quote me exactly.” He said, and grinned, “From now on, assume my old orders take precedence over my new ones. Go ahead, try to avenge Adam.”

I repeated the phrases exactly.

“Nice to meet you.” He grinned, “I’m the Autumn Reaper, and my staff friend is called Godson. Don’t worry about me chasing after you when your trick ends. I won’t be leaving here for hours, so just don’t come back here.”

I slipped out of the execution chambers.

---

The screams started as the door of the chamber swung shut. I deployed [Blood of the Sacrificed], and watched as the suits of armor patrolling the halls grew increasingly frantic, trying to find me. None of them reached me before the skill finished them off.

I retraced my steps through the prison, looking for prisoners. Ultimately, I didn’t trust William’s judgment enough to be worried about freeing prisoners, but finding them was tricky. Most of the cells were empty, as I descended deeper and deeper into the prison. Eventually I reached what appeared to be the bottom of the prison sector, and found seventeen prisoners tossed together in relatively close proximity. Each one was in their own cell, but once I figured out how to corrupt one lock, all the others worked out the exact same way.

Once I did, the locks were turned into deadbolts, and instead of locking the prisoners in, they locked everyone else out. Once I’d done it for all the locks, some of the prisoners started heading out without my intervention. Once half of them had done that, I had to choose between coaxing the others out, or leaving half of them while trying to evac the other half.

After a moment of consideration, I remembered Autumn’s warning about wild angels. If I left them, they’d probably get caught up in whatever danger resulted from his revenge. Their odds of survival might not be good either way, but if they stayed they would almost certainly die.

Most of them were half-lucid at best. I hoped they’d be able to recover if I got them to safety, but it did imply certain constraints for them. Convincing the other half-lucid ones to leave was as simple as asking them to, but one of them refused.

“I see Paradise isn’t content to just violate my soul, are you?” The woman scowled at me.

Unlike the others, she seemed almost fully lucid. She looked better than the other prisoners had as well.

The others looked indistinct in a subtle way, all the details slid out of my mind the moment I looked away from them, and even while I looked at them their traits felt vague or slight. One of them was eight feet in height, and yet my brain refused to recognize him as tall in any way.

This woman somehow seemed dangerous. She had impressive muscles and long blonde hair, and she was neither handsome nor beautiful. Not in the sense that she couldn’t have been either of those things, but in that she was somehow making a point of being neither. That might’ve been a property of being a Taleborn, or a property of my new nature as a Dreamer. I can say that if I saw her in a picture I would have called her both.

“I’m not with them.” I said.

“You’re not with them, whatever.” She said, disdainfully, “You haven’t given me the promise I want.”

“I swear I won’t violate you in soul or body.” I said, “Do you mind if I free you from the handcuffs?”

“Yes.” She said, flatly, “When I’m here, they only rip apart my soul, and that heals. It’ll kill me someday, but it’ll be a slow death. There are worse things.”

“I can’t just leave you to die.” I said.

“It’s not unreasonable.” The woman said, “Out there, anyone would want me, and not all of them care to seek consent. As a fugitive, I wouldn’t even have whatever meager protection Paradise’s law provided. If you want to save me, you need to defend me. Swear that you won’t take anything I don’t give willingly, that you’ll protect me to the best of your abilities, and that you’ll let me stay with you indefinitely.”

I hesitated, closing my eyes, “If you come with me, you’ll be running into battlefields. I can promise I’ll let you follow for as long as you want, and that I’ll let you stay as close as you need. Even so, I can’t promise I’ll keep you safe in the middle of a fight.” I said, “But I can promise I’ll always try.”

She sighed, “That’ll have to be good enough. Is that enough for you to consider the oath binding?”

“Yes.” I said.

“You can call me Helen.” She said, unbolting the latch.

“I’m Ashlyn.” I answered.

---

[Rewards for kills have been locked under the context of the war.]

[You have established a Pact with Helen of Sparta!]

[You have reached a Distant Relationship with Helen of Sparta!]

[New skill acquired: Fairest’s Apple

This skill’s full effects are hidden. When they become applicable, they will be revealed.

This skill interacts with other skills.

Possession of this skill grants a minor affinity for Chaos and Discord.]

[New skill acquired: Last Blight of the Jar

This skill’s full effects are hidden. When they become applicable, they will be revealed.

This skill interacts with other skills.

Possession of this skill grants a minor affinity for Hope.]